FUSE 2023

What is FUSE? 

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FUSE is the Bradley University Interactive Media Department's end-of-year student showcase. Students work all year on projects related to UI/UX design, animation, art, and game design before presenting them to the public.

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This year, I applied and was accepted to be the Art Director for the FUSE Production Team. The Production Team is responsible for laying the groundwork for FUSE. We were charged with making the show happen, and were responsible for everything except for student projects. You can learn more about FUSE by clicking the "see full project" button above!

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My Role

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As Art Director, I worked directly with a team of 8 designers/artists/programmers and indirectly with the rest of the department. Over the course of a semester, I had a lot of responsibilities. My Art Team was responsible for designing the FUSE 2023 website. There, students and projects would be featured. We also had to create every art asset that Production needed. This included a wide variety of print and digital materials, including: 

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1. A logo for FUSE

2. Logos for each individual major

3. Alumni Postcards to invite them to FUSE

4. Marketing materials for social media

5. Posters

6. Lanyards

7. T-Shirts

8. Banners

9. Wireframes and low-fidelity mockups for the website

10. All of the website's UI

...and more!

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My job as Art Director was to ensure all of the art assets were finalized by FUSE. It was a huge undertaking, but it was also so much fun.

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The Process

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Firstly, we needed to pick a "theme" for FUSE. Every show has a theme. In 2021, it was "underwater". In 2022, it was "electricity". This year, I talked with the Student Producer, Rachel Rudy, and we came up with a lot of different ideas before landing on "road trip" for the 2023 theme.

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After a theme was picked, I had to create an overall visual style guide for the Art Team to work with. I complied a series of reference pictures that people could draw from. I also created a design guide with a color palette and list of fonts that we would use to keep eveything consistent. I wanted to invoke a feeling of vintage travel, as if you were going out west on Route 66 and seeing this art on the way.

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From this design guide, we got to work. I developed the main FUSE logo, which is supposed to look like a retro roadside sign. This motif carried into the other logos I created for each major. I worked with the Student Producer to create a list of all of the art assets that needed to be created, and I assigned these tasks to each member of the art team.

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I created work myself, but I was also responsible for telling team members what needed to get done. I was part designer, part Project Manager. I used a modified version of an agile methodology to keep people on task each week.

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The Results

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The Bradley University faculty called FUSE 2023 the best show they'd ever seen. Every art asset was turned in on time, which enabled us to have an informative website about FUSE and give each student a personalized t-shirt and lanyard with their major on it. I learned so much about myself as a designer and artist, but also as I leader. This was one of the first major projects I've ever been in charge of, and even with the stumbling blocks we faced, I am proud of the end result.